The King's Competition There once lay a quiet town in the hills of Europe named Hartville. Not much ever seemed to happen here in Hartville, but there was an intriguing rumor beginning to stir around the town, one of a princess hidden in the castle located on the outskirts of the town. This princess was rumored to be the most beautiful woman throughout the entire nation, because after all, a princess can't not be breathtakingly gorgeous. The rumor told of the princess, after being locked up for eighteen long years, finally being able to escape her castle and become a part of the society, but the king, King Walter, would not let his daughter out without a fight. After all, she meant more to him than to just let her out without something like a big ceremony, or as the citizens of Hartville whispered amongst each other, a contest. The townspeople had never heard a rumor of such enormity. Why would the King ever wish to leave his beautiful daughter a secret from the world? Rumors of the princess continued for months and months, until many believed that nothing was ever going to happen, and that the rumor of this princess being alive was false. After months of the rumor dying down, and most people finally believing it to be untrue, something stirred up excitement in the town of Hartville once again. People were flooding into the streets, rushing to the town square, to hear a speech from King Walter himself. Excitement escalated quickly when people discovered that the speech was going to be about his daughter that no one knew existed, Princess Rosalind. The King explained that the kingdom would be holding a competition to see who was the most noble man in Hartville, and the man who won got the ultimate prize, the opportunity to win the heart of his daughter, Princess Rosalind. This contest would consist of three different components; a physical contest, a brain contest, and a love contest. In each of these contests, the man who comes in last would be eliminated from the contest, and would have no chance in marrying the Princess. The next part of King Walter's speech was the announcement of the four competitors that would be partaking in this contest. The four men who were chosen were named Lawrence Culbert, Stephanos Carlton, Samuel Riggington, and Florous Theodorus, four of the most well known men to ever live in Hartville. Three weeks later, the contest was about to go under way, and the first component was the physical portion. This began with a long run, involving hills and mud, followed by a weight lifting competition, which was also followed by a hunting portion, to prove to the King that the competitors could hunt to feed the Princess. Lawrence, who was known for his muscles and ability to beat all of the other men in town in any sort of physical activity, won this portion of the competition by a long shot, leaving Stephanos and Florous in the dust, struggling to even finish the run. Samuel was struggling with the hunting portion, continuously missing the animals while shooting his bow at them, causing him to lose his lead on the other two competitors. Eventually, Florous finally completed the run, and moved onto the weight lifting portion, but Stephanos could not even finish running, resulting him in dropping out of the contest. Now only three men were left; Lawrence, Florous, and Samuel, and they were all headed to the next event held two nights later; the brain contest. As the contests arrived to the scene, they had no idea what was headed their way. They were unsure of what to expect, and what they got, was certainly something one would not be prepared for. There were three stations set up; one with a large puzzle, one with what seemed to be a multiple choice test, and one with the king himself sitting right in front of the table where they were directed to sit. Although the instructions were simple; go to each table and perform the given task, the tasks were not so simple. At the puzzle table Lawrence's